LETTER: Maintain conservative nuclear cleanup standards

Tuesday

The following letter was sent to the state secretary of Health and Human Services.

The following letter was sent to the state secretary of Health and Human Services.

Dear Secretary Sudders:

On June 1 of 2019, when the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station ceases operation, the decommissioning process will commence. The details of this decommissioning are a matter of acute interest to members of the Plymouth Area League of Women Voters because we know that the future use of the site will depend on how well it has been cleaned up. This is a serious matter.

It has come to our attention that the commonwealth's conservative standards for cleanup of radiological sites do not yet apply to Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. For all other radiological sites, the commonwealth requires residual radiation to be as low as reasonably achievable and in any case less than 10 millirem per person per year for a site with unrestricted use, and no more than 4 millirem exposure for all drinking water pathways, consistent with the U.S. EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act, In contrast, the NRC's radiological cleanup standards for unrestricted use would allow the laxer standard of 25 millirem of release. Once operations have ceased at Pilgrim, the commonwealth, released from the NRC's preemption, will have the clear authority to regulate the site cleanup. If the commonwealth fails to apply its own conservative standards to the PNPS, we in Plymouth will be stuck with a radiologically contaminated site that puts our health at risk. And this risk will be disproportionately visited upon women, children, the elderly and the infirm.

We were pleased to hear that in April of this year, Mass DPH asked Entergy to sign a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to a more conservative standard of cleanup. But Entergy declined to do so. From recent NDCAP meetings, it now appears likely that Holtec, too, will decline voluntary compliance with the desired standard. Their compliance is far more likely to be incentivized if they know that commonwealth regulation will hold Pilgrim to the same standards as it holds other radiological sites. We ask that Massachusetts exercise its authority to regulate the cleanup of the Pilgrim site after operations cease. This needs to be done as promptly as possible so that present and future plant owners (Entergy and Holtec) as well as the federal regulatory body (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) will be fully aware of the commonwealth’s intention to protect the welfare of its people, lands and waterways to the fullest possible extent. We ask this for the sake of all the residents of Plymouth and for the health of Cape Cod Bay, which is integral to our larger ecology. If the commonwealth does not stand up for the health of its own citizens, who will?